So, a couple of days ago, I went to shut down my laptop as normal and for some reason when it shut all the way down it booted back up again, as if I had pressed Restart rather than Shut Down; it's been doing this for several days now. I've done a virus scan and I've come up with nothing. I'd really rather not reformat again. I'm running Windows XP with SP3. Any ideas?
Do you get anything like a BSOD before it restarts? It might not be, but there's a setting somewhere where in the case of one, it won't restart, just stay there. If you get a BSOD, write down the error code and name.
No, no BSOD. Just shut down, gets to "Windows is now shutting down...", goes to black screen (Computer does not actually turn off at all), and then reboots.
Something is messing up in ACPI/APM control within Windows. I'd suggest trying a System Repair. If that doesn't work, then a reformat would probably be necessary. In any case, you can just power it off as it attempts to start the system back up...
You get a BSOD when you are shutting down, and BSODs automatically reboot your system. Disable the autorebooting and you'll be able to see the bsod. If it really is one, try debugging the minidump file to see what is causing it.
